This invention relates to vehicles, particularly mine supply cars, having selectively useable wheel sets, for example a rail-engageable wheel set and a road wheel set enabling the vehicle to operate either by rail or by road (or similar surface) by conversion to the appropriate wheel set.
Mine supply cars having flanged, rail-engageable wheels, and rubber-tired road wheels, which may be used selectively, are known in the art. During operation, for example, a car may be towed by electric locomotive down into a mine on a rail track to a point where the rail track terminates. At this point, the car may be taken off the rail track and moved on its road wheels to a final destination at or near the mine face. A reverse procedure may be adopted for returning the mine car to the surface. Thus, mine supply cars of this type include a mechanism for transferring support of the car as between the rail wheels and the road wheels, such mechanism commonly including apparatus for selectively raising and lowering one set of wheels relative to the other set.